Highland Colour Coaters and its parent company Highland Galvanizers are the only plants in Scotland to offer a “one stop shop” for galvanized corrosion protection and powder coated finishes. Operating from Cumbernauld and Elgin respectively, they provide these services for all kinds of steel fabrication and metalwork in Scotland and the North of England.
Around 50 vehicles a day drop off deliveries at the Cumbernauld plant, most of which are not pre-arranged, so the ability to quickly and safely offload and transport whatever turns up is crucial to avoid congestion in the yard. MD Geoff Crowley had tried out “pretty much every brand of counterbalance forklift and sideloader” none of which were practical in his opinion, whereas Combilift’s 4-way trucks proved to be tough operators in what Geoff believes is one of the harshest operating environments imaginable.
The “old hands” are two C5000s at Elgin and a C3000 at Cumbernauld which has clocked up 23,000 hours in 10 years. At this site a newer C5000XL model has already seen 7,000 hours of operation in just two years. Around 50t of products are treated on a daily basis and the trucks work 24 hours a day for 5 days a week plus 16 hours across the weekend.
“The Combilifts are unbeatable as they keep the production running smoothly,” said Geoff. “Their robust build and lack of over sensitive electronic parts means that they just run and run in very adverse conditions where there are issues with acid vapour and corrosion.”
One of the main duties of the C5000XL is to position jigs for handling by overhead crane before and after the galvanizing process. These are 7m long and need to be transported from one end of the facility to another for every job on a 15 minute basis. As well as putting in the hours this truck has also travelled far: Geoff estimates that it can cover 10,000km in a year for this particular task alone. “If we didn’t have the 4-way capability it would be much more awkward and dangerous to move the jig along the edge of the building. A previous experience of spending a lot of money widening access to a building to accommodate a counterbalance truck with a long load has made us very appreciative of the Combilift’s manoeuvrability.”
Tel: 00353 47 80500
Email: info@combilift.com
Comments are closed.